This is the blog (and temporary website whilst we update ours) of Laura Coleman, a florist with an incredible passion for flowers, weddings, classes events and well, cake, food and of course, her hubbie Phill. Enjoy the pics, chattering and general goings on. Our website is www.lauracolemanflowers.co.uk. which we're currently bringing up to speed! Happy reading!

Monday, March 7, 2011

The inside track on flowers for the cycling!

It is always great fun working on the World Track Cycling Championships - we've done it for a few years now but it always fills me with excitement. It takes you over - who's going to be representing Team Sky and team GB, will they get to the podium, will the man I see on my Bran Flakes be holding the bouquets I've so lovingly created and will I be as horse from cheering as I was last year when I go and see it all live?

This year it all started with a dress. Yes, a dress. The super glamourous frocks that the medal and flower bearers wear on the podium. British Cycling's brand conscious events team had hand selected the dress to compliment the branding of the event and new website and worked with me to make sure it all tied in - literally, we did tie it in, choosing ribbon that perfectly complimented the outfits and using a completely red palette across all the flowers to make sure they stood out on the television and on the tables. Yes, alongside decorating the VIP suites in the M.E.N Arena, the velodrome is one of the biggest venues we've ever put our flowers in!

So, with this in mind we used incredible red roses in the bouquets, red tulips on the VIP tables and roses, tulips and seasonal flowers for the displays. All perfectly arranged and proudly put in place and checked during daily deliveries. Here's some behind the scenes shots (and a few moments of starstruck floral pride!)

Enjoy the read!

Laura x

A photo of some of the lovely flowers, although this shows only a small percentage of what I used! The roses were gorgeous. Used loads of them in the bouquets. Cyclists who had forgotten Valentines Day needed to pedal pretty hard for their gorgeous red blooms!

A small detail in a giant venue. Two tulips in a little bowl. Very stylish and simple yet affective on a smart VIP poseur table.

The VIP entrance with two stunning displays and a very helpful lady with a walky talky. I am a tad jealous that she had a walky talky. Childhood dream to own one.

Yes, the velodrome is massive! This is taken from across the track, which is yes, very steep - I've pootled round it on a bike with no brakes. I would never go so far to say I've cycled on it and certainly not raced! Anyway, raced or not, I have decorated it - these tables gave an amazing view.

A snap of a few of the flowers we used to create the displays, gorgeous red hypericum berries and amazing strelizia leaves. They were huge!

One of the VIP arrangments that we designed to reflect the circular movement of the velodrome.

A few of the medallist bouquets all packed and set to go to the velodrome.

On the podium with flowers on the giant screen.

Sir Chris Hoy after winning a gold medal - well done to the chap on my Bran Flakes box, well done indeed! Now, you have to look super close, but if you concentrate and focus, you can see a large leaf and a rose poking out the back of his backpack.